What Can You Do To Manage Your Anxiety?

Caffeine of any sorts can be extremely detrimental when it comes to fighting anxiety. All the above-mentioned items increase the body fight or flight response thereby aggravating anxiety. Caffeine can even trigger an anxiety attack making it extremely difficult for a person to manage it in the long term. Some over-the-counter medicines such as Midol and Excedrin can unknowingly be a source of caffeine.

Daily exercise increases the amount of endorphin in the body. It generates heat in the body thereby altering neural circuits thereby improving the cognitive function and mood. Many researchers believe that daily exercise can help to boost mood, increase relaxation and curb anxiety to a significant extent. For a starter, daily jogging of up to half an hour followed by some basic free-hand exercise will do the trick.

Diaphragmatic breathing should be practiced as it helps cope up with an anxiety or panic attack. This kind of breathing helps the belly expands in and out as compared to the chest going up and down during normal breathing. It helps to imagine that someone has placed a balloon inside the belly. This form of breathing helps to circulate more air inside the brain thereby helping the body to reduce stress. When practicing diaphragmatic breathing, more air should be exhaled that inhaled. For instance, if air inhalation happens for 3 seconds, exhalation should happen for 4 seconds.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a very powerful technique when it comes to countering anxiety. This is a technique that involves tightening each muscle of the body followed by releasing the muscle in groups. The process should start from the toe followed by the upper muscles of the body. The relaxation of the group of muscles should be in an interval of 15-20 seconds. The process of relaxing the muscle should be repeated once a cycle has been completed.